Sir Edward Elgar's recording career on behalf of his own music was in many ways remarkable. His recordings date from the dawn of the electrical era and quite naturally reflect the early limitations of the recording art-not to mention the technical shortcomings of the British orchestras with which EMI provided him in the 1920s and '30s. Still, it's always valuable to have a composer's interpretive insights, especially when the composer is as accomplished a conductor as Elgar was.

So these sets, completing EMI's three-volume "Elgar Edition," are of great historical and musical interest, and are recommended to all who love Elgar's music. The majority of these six CDs are given over to shorter works and vignettes gathered in suite form, and while less substantial than, say, the Violin Concerto and "Enigma Variations" (included in Vol. 2) or the Cello Concerto (Vol. 3), I have always found Elgar-in-miniature more appealing than the Elgar of the symphonies and grandiose choral works.

A comparison of the CD transfers with the sound on the British LP reissues reveals that, while the sound has been brought forward with considerable clarity, it has taken on a rather harsh brightness that requires a treble cut to tame it; how ironic that bringing this material up to modern standards has made the flaws of the original recordings more apparent than ever. Not that many collectors are going to look EMI's gift-horse in the mouth, since the musical rewards far outweigh the sonic limitations.